Dental flossing is recognized by dentists as a necessary and effective part of teeth cleaning and plaque removing. Today, there is not any practical, well-designed device that gives consumers a high level of satisfaction with regard to usage, storage, hygiene etc.
Finger flossing, used by most people, is a very primitive way to floss teeth. It is not hygienic, it hurts gums und fingers. It does not allow an easy reach of rear molars. It is very difficult to control pressure and movement of floss in teeth given the space taken by fingers in the mouth. As result, finger flossing is not an exercise people are keen on, specially children.
Disposable flossers and tooth picks provide an alternative for occasional flossing, but present some disadvantages:
It is impossible to use them for rear molars flossing given that floss is in a longitudinal position (in line with the body). PA1 The floss remains effective for one or two teeth maximum. A normal flossing would require many of those flossers. PA1 The floss tautness rapidly disappears making it ineffective rapidly.
Several different floss holders have been developed to assist in the flossing operation. However, none of them are able to satisfy the requirements of an optimal floss holder. As a result, none have lead to any form of commercialization. They are either too simple and try to replace fingers with devices that require a complex, non hygienic and wasteful reeling of floss. Others are mechanically too complex and would be expensive to manufacture while not giving full satisfaction to users.